Twenty Years our King

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 44, 16 May 1930, Page 27

Twenty Years our King

From a Topical Talk |

By

A. B.

Chappell

MA

[S MAJESTY KING GEORGH has completed twenty years ‘on the throne of the British realm. Congratulations to him and to ourselves are in order. In various ways-by loyal messages, salute of guns, dressing of ships, visits ' of courtesy-the day has been marked as important. It is,important, and it is. fitting that radio broadcasting, the most modern means of sharing popular celebrations, a means brought to being in the years of His Majesty’s reign, Should fall gladly into line. honour .ourselves when we honour pur King; this is the cardinal fact in connection with the keeping of Accession Day. That for which he stands is so really part of our own life that We may rightly regard the day as if it were our own, and with good reason give it due observance. There are republicans who may wonder at this. If we were citizens of a republic we, too, might wonder-until Wwe recollected the’ national days that every self-respecting republic keeps in some fashion. Round a President or a constitution, republican festivities gather; for us, they centre in a king. In both political systems, it is the identification of. the individual’s life with that of the nation that is acknowledged. ‘There are a few so insensible of their Social debts that they can blatantly ‘Pkise the cry, "No king, no flag, no country!" Against these the republican and the monarchist stand shoulder to shoulder; the anarchist is equally the enemy of both. There can be no State without a focus for loyalty, no. body politic without a head. Without «. focused loyalty, society is impossible and human nature must.fall lower than the bulk of the beasts that perish. For us British, our King is such a focus and head.

Our King inearnates our national institutions and spirit. What is his is . ours. It is cur throne that is his seat of honour.: ‘The ships that are distinguishably styled, "H.M.S." we munition and man. The judges whom we seek as arbiters in our citizen disputes preside by his commission and stat ed authority. The parchments in which we bind ourselves to others in the realm bear his name and title. T him we swear allegiance, but he madé solemn oath of loyalty also, else he cpuld not be named in our covenant. On the coinage of the country his likeness is stamped, but we give it currency. His life and ours, his auti.ority and the power of the people, are so vitally interwoven that our refusal ‘to -do honour to him would be *» dishonour ourselves. QOuR King stands for our British ideal of citizenship. He is not above the realm. He is the commonwealth’s chief servant... When he is true to that ideal, our hearts are satisfied and glad. When he openly fails to embody t ideal, we are disappointed and distressed. But we do not, therefore, seek the destruction of the Throne. Our history shows this marvel: we can dismiss .and depose and even kill our king and yet be, loyal subjects of a monarchy. Indeed, our very. loyalty

has been proved by our rebellion. Sir Walter Raleigh, though his unfinished history was suppressed because it "dealt too saucily with kings," could yet, on the scaffold, honestly declare that he bad never been disloyal to the King. It is one of the most ardent loyalists of our day, whose writings are renowned for their inspiration to reverence for Britain’s Throne, who hotly denounces our First James as "a craven king,’ and you will find, set in another volume pulsing with patriotism, as scathing a flagellation of that monarch’s littleness as ever enlivened a printed page. We know that He’s a king, A true, right king, that. dares do ought save wrong; Fears nothing mortal but to be unjust ; Who is not blown up with the flatring puffs Of spongy sycophants; who stands unmoved Despite the jostling of opinion. We know, too, that there have been unregal monarchs, and history shows that we have had the courage of that opinion. Yet that very knowledge and courage are evidence of the ideal ‘of kingship that we hold.

WHEN we see confronting each otther Pilate and Jesus, Felix and Paul, Sigismund and Huss, we do not hesitate to say in each case which is the king. Neither the cowardly governor, nor the conscience-stricken procurator, nor the perfidious emperor is seen as clad in royal authority. Our swiftmoving judgment strips them of the purple and fiings it round the men in bonds at their mercy. The same unerring instinct marks our estimation of all the world’s potentates. There isa spirit that "becomes the throned monarch better than his crown." The crown cannot make a. king. It can only make demands of him as a king. We honour it for these demands, and look eagerly in hope to see that, for his own country’s sake and all the world’s good, he has the will and power to fulfil them, These demands are heavy, heavy beyond the weighing of most of us. Still, as of old, "uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." It is no pastime to be a king. Shakespeare, you remember, makes "unkinged Richard" ‘say. to usurping Bolingbroke :- Your care is gain of care, by new care, won; *: . S My care is loss of care, by old care done; . The cares I give I have, though given away; . They tend the crown, yet still with me they stay. For all their idle talk, there is not one among the defamers of monarchy. who would long endure the cares that "tend the crown." . , . True, the ‘monarchy we know best has been shorn of many of its old prerogatives. In the.patient achieving

of our constitution’s stability we have transferred the initiative of legislation from the Throne to Parliament; but we have not seriously lightened the toil of the monarch. As each prerogative now in other hands has. been taken away from the monarch there have been given to him, with the enlarging of the bounds of the Empire and the quickening of life’s pace, new opportunities au 2 responsibilities of service. Our King has still really great powers, and as a clear-thinking writer on constitutional affairs remarks, "a king of great sense and sagacity would want no others." Ceasing to be a fount of law, our King has become a fount of honour, the head of our social life, and the focus of our national affection and pride. What is often overaum

Tlooked is the fact that these characteristics of his office bring with.them great tests.as well as great scope in service to the State. ND now a few. words about. His Majesty King George, who for twenty years has had such burdens and such duties. Let me give you, as I speak of him, an honest pictare of a serving. king. Think .of the well-remembered years: of the Great War. At their close, the Prime Minister of the day said that the Throne had won an ‘added respect, stability and lustre.’ The truth of that is worth at least u little thought. In those terribly searching years. many thrones ‘went crashing down, never to be set.up again, and some rocked dangerously. Our King’s remained "broadbased upon his people’s will." When London celebrated the armistice the King walked amid a cheering throng. Walked, mark you, and the cheers were spontaneous and made all London echo to the roar. Why? Not because the war was won, but for the part he had played in it. (Concluded on page 32.) —

Twenty Years King

(Congluded from page 2.) . There was a pervading realisation, . deep and strong, that had his realm been shattered he personally would yes have stood unshaken in} renown. George, the Beloved, for as such he merits long remembrance, is by nature unpretentious, guiltless of endeavour to turn events into occasions of self glory. Had he not been king he would have made a wholly admirable Hnglish country: gentleman, seeking the simple joys and doing the plain duties of such a gentlernan’s life, or perhaps a faithful, toil-loving Admiral of the Fleet. His pronounced individuality, expressed in energetic talk and eager interest, has made him everywhere a welcome influence, and his happy laughter. has proved him to be delightfully human. With this naturalness has been associated a high sense of duty. O war purposes he devoted, in one sum, practically his whole income for one. year-and much more besides that special gift. To set a conspicuous example in patriotism, he gave up aleohol for the duration of the war. just as he had, .long before, so reduced his seale of living that food rationing. to which he conformed at once on its introduction, hardly made any difference at his table. He has been religious without ostentation. Throughout the twenty years of his reign he has been an example to his ‘people in the practice of what are known as the domestie virtues. "THESE twenty years have been marked by industrial unrest, constitutional crisis, political and excitement; and in them fell, to recur to that for a moment, the greatest war the world has known. But he. has met all the demands of chaneing. testing circumstance. . Before his accession, he took the duties of coming kingship very seriously. Pspecially did he set himself to know his destined kingdom, visiting even the outmost dominions of his inheritance. Six times he went to Canada,. three times to India, twice to South Africa, and most of is remember his coming to the lands of the South Pacific. When the war befell he was, as ever, accessible to every appeal, uttered and. unuttered. for service in the nation’s canse. He proved indefatigable, Said Mr. Llord George, in the third year of the war, "Thera is one man who is working as hard as the hardest-worked men in this country. and that is the Sovereign of this realm." His Majesty knew. it was said. more about the war than did any one of his Cabinet Ministers. All the secret papers of the Foreign Office, all the confidential reports of diplomatic missions abroad. all the correspondence of the India Office and the Colonial Office, all the mncensored naval and... military dispatches. and all the multitudinons returns of Government TDenartments. on the myriad subjects that claimed his interest and attention, were perused by him af first hand. Taking an average, his working day was. then between twelve and fifteen hours, according to the rough estimate of those in a position to know. He took a personal interest in every branch of the fighting services, visiting

the Grand Fleet and the naval bases and the armies in France, and especially endearing himself by the patient thoroughness and simple kindlinesses of his tours through munition works and hospitals. These things cannot he forgotten. They are recalled now with satisfaction and thanksgiving. He, has done much to give us, as a people, a purified monaréhy-as the fount of honour rather than the source of law, I may repeat-and te make it the rallying centre of a nation’s affection instead of the imperious creator of their fears. In,a kingdom so blessed and ,served there may be, there is, a citizen-freedom the equal: at least of that enjoyed in the :nost thoroughgoing republic. -To a‘freedom of that kind we British have attained, and in our loyalty to the Throne, we. really: ex-

press our fealty to the great comm wealth of which the Sovereign is the chief representative rather than ruling head. When the throne is occupied by one who serves the realm with such conspicuous devotion and dutifulness aS has His Majesty served it during these twenty years, it is a bulwark of national liberties and a bond of national union, And in thought of this we do not, we cannot, forget how well His Majesty has been supported by every member of the Royal House. I give you, as a mental toast for this celebration, a variant of the familiar "Gentlemen, the King!’ Ladies and gentlemen, of all ages, all classes, all. creeds, all tastes in polities, all grades of culture, join with me in honour to George the Beloved, "long to reign over us" in the good of God.